VIDEOS: Federal judge orders terror suspects held without bail

ALBANY -- The two men facing terrorism charges for concocting a plot to create a death ray were ordered held without bail by a federal judge Thursday, as more details emerged about their plot.

"It is clear by the evidence presented that both men present a real, clear and present danger if they were released," U.S. District Court Judge Christian Hummel said of Glendon Scott Crawford, 49, of Galway, and Eric J. Feight, 54, of Hudson.

In a 122-page criminal complaint, the men are accused of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.

The charges arose out of a nearly year-long FBI investigation involving undercover agents, confidential informants and a successful sting operation in the town of Schaghticoke.

The lead prosecutor in the case, Executive Assistant District Attorney John Duncan, also revealed disturbing details not included in the lengthy criminal complaint about Crawford's actions on the eve of his arrest Tuesday.

"Even before the arrest, Crawford escorted agents to a location in the Albany area as a target," Duncan told the court. "It was an area mosque."

On the morning of his arrest, Crawford took agents to a second potential target to test his "death ray," an Islamic center located in Schenectady, Duncan said.

Later that day Crawford brought his device to the now abandoned Shorty's Auto Body on Route 40 in Schaghticoke, where federal agents had set up a sting operation.

"He (Crawford) began the process of connecting the remote device to the X-ray system," Duncan said. "He brought the Feight-built remote triggering device to the location and began to initiate operation."

An FBI swat team swarmed in and arrested Crawford before he could fully activate it, Duncan said.

The FBI had consulted some of the nation's foremost experts in order to determine the danger Crawford and Feight's device posed, Duncan said.

"(They) confirmed that these devices and their systems would be deadly if they were assembled as these defendant's had intended," he said.

Crawford's attorney, Kevin Luibrand, took issue with the government's claims of danger.

"He's a high school graduate and a car mechanic," Luibrand said. "He's not capable of creating ions that could kill people."

Luibrand consulted his own experts, including a Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute engineering professor whom he said characterized the scheme as "far-fetched and implausible."

Feight's attorney, George Baird, echoed Luibrand's claims.

"This was nonsense," he said. "No one could design a machine that could do what the government says it could do."

Baird said his client was a valued employee at a Cobleskill quarry, a father, an Elks member, and an owner of his own small business who posed no danger to the community.

Duncan rebutted both defense attorney's claims just before Hummel's ruling.

"Tuesday he (Crawford) powered up the device," Duncan said, pointing at the defendant. "He did everything except flip the switch to initiate radiation -- which he said was because he was afraid of the potential exposure."

At the conclusion of the hearing, U.S. Marshalls escorted both men to the Albany County Correctional facility.

In the meantime, Duncan said the government could convene a grand jury in an effort to seek an indictment against both men.